Fantasy Baseball Today - 05/23: Adames, Tue. Recap, Fantasy Regulators (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 23, 2018

How excited should Fantasy owners be about Willy Adames (1:25) and Austin Meadows (3:41)? Is Cole Hamels a Top 40 SP (8:40)? We're discussing these three plus other standouts from last night's games including Caleb Smith (10:30) and Kevin Gausman (12:00) who has an interesting upcoming schedule ... Bullpen notes (17:44), Scott's thoughts on the slumping first basemen (26:40) including Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, Edwin Encarnacion and more and then it's time for Worryometer Wednesday (32:45)! How are we feeling about Jameson Taillon and Hanley Ramirez, among others? ... Grade the Trade (39:40), streaking hitters (43:01), SPs available on waivers (45:08) and Fantasy Regulators (50:43) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Another home run for Ian Hap. Another prospect gets called up. Another great start from Cole Hamels. We'll talk about it all right now in the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Hump Day on Wednesday, May 23rd. I am Adam Azer. It's just a scam show today. He is Scott White. Hello, Scott White.

Hello to Adam. What's up? How are we feeling? We're feeling pretty good. Pretty good. Another big day of baseball. another big day for Juan Soto. Yes.

Who walked three times and did not see a strike on any of those three walks. Wow. They're pitching around them already. They're scared, and they should be. Probably, because the rest of the lineup isn't so formidable. Actually, I don't know where he's hitting. Where is he hitting in the lineup? I believe six or seven.

Okay. All right, well, so, yeah, we will talk about Juan Soto. I'm not sure there's much to say. He is 86% owned, but Willie Adomis is 34% owned. Oh, the Mariners. The Mariners got very injured yesterday. They did not have a fun day. No.

We do have some fun stuff coming up. Let's start with another day, another prospect. Willie Adomis, 22 years old, not great minor league numbers. This year in the minors, he's batting 311 with four homers and three steals in 40 games. In his minor league career, Adamas is a dreadful steel percentage. He has 52 steals and 85 attempts in 5993 games. Yeah, it's not good. But he's 34% only homered off Chris Sale.

It's only temporary. Joey Wendell's on paternity leave. But he homered off Chris Sale, Scott. So, you know, maybe send him back down, but he'll come back up, right? Yeah, and I wouldn't even rule out the possibility that he stays up now. I mean, he did start at shortstop yesterday. And it's not like that's Wendell's position. You know? Right.

So he also struck out twice, but, yeah, facing Chris Sale, you give him a fast for that. It's just like, I could see it being in Cody Bellinger situation last April. We assumed it was just going to be a short-term stay for Bellinger. Dave Roberts even said it was going to be a short-term stay, and then he never went back down. I wouldn't rule out that possibility if he continues to perform. And though he didn't have big power numbers in the miners, he was always a top-rate prospect. The production had steadily improved through his minor league career, and he just looks like a good enough – he looks like he has enough hitting aptitude

that I could see him being one of those prospects who just is better in the majors than he ever was in the minors. I think shortstop is deep enough that there's no reason to slot him in the top 20 right now, but if you have a bad – if you're on a bad spot at that position, there's some upside here, and it might be worth a gamble. This is Willie Adamas we're talking about. He actually had three strikeouts yesterday, but yes, Chris Sale was on the mound. We will forgive Willie Adamas. Do you think you would drop, let's say, Jorge Soler for Adamus?

No. No. Okay. No. Would you drop Matt Kemp for Adamas? Yeah, but I've never really been into Kemp to begin with. No. No, you haven't.

What about Austin Meadows? Starling Marte could be back on Saturday. Saturday. Meadows making a case for more playing time, but where? 48% owned. He's batting 400 with two homers and a steel. No walks, only one strikeout in four games. 48% owned Meadows. Speaking of hitting aptitude, allowing a prospect to perform better in the majors than he did in the minors, Meadows might be doing that sort of thing now. It's too small of the sample to really conclude that's what's happening here, but there were plenty of believers in him still,

even with pretty awful numbers in the minors the last two years. I mean, going into last year, Baseball America had him as the sixth best prospect in the game. So there's definitely pedigree here. But ultimately, like, who's the pirate's worst outfield or whatever's healthy? Corey Dickerson? Yeah.

Is he going to overtake Corey Dickerson? It's starting to happen with Cory Dickerson. He's slumping. He is starting to slump. He is starting to slump. It's a small slump, but I think it's a sign of a bigger slump or a continued slump. But he's built up a lot of goodwill, I think. Right.

And, yeah, I would suspect Meadows gets sent back down once Starling Marte is healthy. You know who's underrated, Scott? Who's underrated? You are underrated. No. You are. Tim Meadows is underrated. Very funny, man.

I mean, he doesn't get the credit he deserves from. his SNL days. The Ladies Man? Very funny movie. I don't know. I'm a big Tim Meadows fan. He often does well in supporting roles. Who is your favorite former SNL cast member? Oh, that's something I haven't really thought about. This is why I'm not overrated because why are we talking about this? I honestly, I'll take the popularness. I think I'll just going to go with Will Ferrell.

I think he's better than all of them. And that's a lot That's like a lot of That's Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy I don't really remember Bill Murray Oh yeah I mean if you go back that far I love Bill Murray

I mean he's kind of past his Prime I guess But like whenever he does pop up in a movie It's still magical Will Ferrell Better comedy career than Bill Murray I said it Oh my gosh

I can't believe I said that Oh my It's more prolific I feel like What is the Bill Murray comedy that stands out to you, the movie that he started, that it was his movie? I mean. It's not Ghostbusters. You cannot say that.

It's not Ghostbusters because Dan Aykroyd was in it too and Harold Ramos. Right, exactly. You know, they're both comedic legends, but that was, like, Bill Murray, like, owned every scene in that movie. He made that movie. It was probably Groundhog Day. It's definitely not Caddyshack. He's barely in them. Yeah, you're right.

It's Groundhog Day. I mean, those two, Groundlood, Ghostbusters. They got to be, for me, they got to be in the top 20 comedies ever. Are they better than old school? An anchor man? I think so.

All right, Scott. Juan Soto. Don't get us off on these tangents. Juan Soto. One for one with three walks against the Padres. Is there anything to say about Juan Soto? Is he on your bench this week? Because he's on my bench.

In one of the leagues where I own him, he's on my bench. Yeah, because I happen to have a stacked out field. But, yeah, well. Look at Scott White, everybody. We'll see how the rest of his week goes, but I think he can push his way past Brett Gardner. Oh, yeah, I'd say so. Who sat against a lefty yesterday, by the way.

And that lefty he sat against was Cole Hamels. We'll talk about Cole Hamels in about 20 seconds. I just want to tell you what's coming up on today's show. Scott and I are going to put our commission hats on, and we are regulating. The fantasy regulators are back coming up later in the show. If you have a league dispute, send an email to Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com and put Fantasy regulators in the subject line.

You have to put exactly that, fantasy regulators, not regulators, not Regulate, not regulation, not is this regulation size, just put fantasy regulators, and we will try to get to them probably once, twice a week. And we also, Scott, I am digging deep by the, the way at this point. I am digging deep for music, but we are teaching today, and we are, there we go. It took a while to come on. Teach you how to grade to trade today. Any song with the word teach in it or grade or Dougie.

There you go. Scott's grooving over there. I saw that, Scott. I saw that shimmy. All right. We'll do grade the trade a little bit later on. Scott, let's talk about Cole Hamels. He was a by-low candidate for you, seven innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, two home runs against the team he will be pitching for in just a couple of months, the New York Yankees.

And the wins, you know, he's three and four, but he's going to go to a better team, right? This is good stuff for Cole Hamils. I mean, if he goes to the Yankees, yeah, we can expect that win-lost record to improve for sure. I think it will anyway, as deep as he's pitching into games and as effectively as he's pitching. He was last year where I kind of feel like Jake Arieta and John Lester are this year just looked like the stuff was clearly diminished, strikeout rate dropping, but he's managed to salvage it this year. He's back, and it was a stated goal of his in spring training,

kind of reworked his arsenal, and he's getting strikeouts again, and is pitching deep into games in a way most pitchers don't these days. So to me, he's a borderline. line top 40 pitcher. Cole Hamill's. Would you take him over James and Tyone? We have the Worryometer coming up today too. Oh, yeah. Easily.

Would you take him over Luke Weaver? I let it rank Weaver ahead still, but there's the concern with Alex Reyes coming back that Weaver ends up being the odd man out, because we know now it's not going to be Alex Reyes. Reyes is going to be in the starting rotation for sure that Cardinals GM Michael Gersh

said the other day at the end of the month. So like, you know, less than a week from now. Who would you rather have Cole Hamels or Alex Reyes? Alex Reyes. I actually moved him definitively to my top 40 yesterday. Big rise for him. He's, he is must-own. Okay, Alex Reyes.

Scott, who stood out to you in Wednesday's games? I mean, I guess Cole Hamels is must-owned too, but, you know, Reyes is actually still available in some leagues. Right. So who stood out to me yesterday? I'm asking the questions here. Caleb Smith. Yeah.

Nice bounce-back performance from him. Good. Caleb with the K showed up again. Right. Boy, did we have a big group of fringy starting pitchers, like 40 to 70%-owned kind of guys, and they mostly were pretty bad. You know, Chasine was good.

I guess I overstated it. It was Zach Wheeler was good. Matt Harvey was good. They were uninspiring, though. Trevor Cahill and Caleb Smith, though. They did nicely, but Smith had the strikeouts. Cahill's two starts in a row without strikeouts. Who would you rather own Smith or Cahill?

I would rather own Smith. And in fact, the way these two starts off the D.E. D.L. have gone for Cahill. He was fringy to begin with, but I think he's back to being drop a bowl. You held on to him. I held on to him this week anywhere I had him because it was a two-star week. But he would be somebody, if a new player emerged on waivers who was interesting, worth picking up, Cahill might be somebody I dropped.

And for Caleb Smith, we're looking at two starts next week at San Diego and at Arizona. So that's good stuff And he's 52% owned Caleb Smith Any other standouts? I got one that I'd like to talk about in a bit, or now, if you want some time to think of more standouts.

What about Kevin Gosman? That's the guy I wanted to talk about. Let's do it. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. What do you have? 25 swinging strikes yesterday, right? Something like that. Something like that.

23 is the number I saw. It depends what website. total, his highest of the season, obviously. Yeah, so I own a decent amount of Kevin Gosman. I have him three of six leagues. I looked at his upcoming schedule. And last time out he was really bad against Boston. He said that the strike zone wasn't good and infected him, whatever.

But I think, now, this won't be exact because it never is. But I looked at like, if he starts every five games for the Baltimore Orioles, this is the upcoming schedule for Kevin Gosman. at the Rays this weekend. Yankees at Toronto, Boston, at Washington, at Atlanta, and the Angels. I really think that Gosman has taken advantage

of an easy schedule. But I'm conflicted, because I know you had him as a breakout going into the year. Yeah. I'd like to get something really good for him. I'm not saying Gosman stinks. But I'm not sure I'm at the point

where I trust him, especially on this terrible team. How many wins is he going to get? I'm not sure I'm at the point where I trust them against tough matchups. Yeah, that's probably fair. I mean, he did have a good start against the Yankees earlier this year. You know, I was at that game. It was cold.

They weren't playing that well. He didn't pitch that great. We didn't have three strikeouts or something. He had a great start against the Indians. I don't know. Yeah, I was at that game. Scott. But obviously, they have a ton of really good ones.

He did, yeah. That was probably his best start before yesterday, actually, that indeed start. I mean, I don't know. It's not like he's ascended to must-start status for me either. So in a one-start week with a bad match-up, I wouldn't definitively sit him, but I'd have to weigh my options. Yeah. One thing I really like about this start, and I know it was against the White Sox, and that probably was a contributing factor. But, you know, every time we've talked about Gosman, I talked about how important.

important his splitter is for his effectiveness, how if you look at the breakdown last year, early in the year he was throwing at about 15% of the time was dreadful. Later in the year, was throwing it 25% of the time. It was basically Trevor Bauer. So, you know, for the most part, that's been up this year. Yesterday's start, he threw it more like 40% of the time. He did the Patrick Corbin thing of make your best pitch, your primary pitch. And we see the results. result. So I'm not sure there isn't still untapped upside here if that becomes the normal approach for Gosman. Obviously, one start sample, so we have no idea if it was just a blip. But it was interesting. Like, if you can definitively sell high, sure. But the fact that he has, he's only three and three

with 34080. All right. If anybody looks at his tip, they're going to be underwhelmed. I'm not confident you can really sell. I've been trying and I can't sell it. him. So that's a thing. I'm fine just keeping Kevin Gosman. I like him. I would like to turn him into something great, if possible, on the heels of this awesome start. And he might have another one at Tampa Bay this weekend. And then the schedule could get pretty rough for him. Like maybe you could swap him for Tanaka? You know, I asked somebody before yesterday's start, that I would do, by the way, yeah. But I said, who would you rather have Gosman or Maeda? Because I was trying to work out a deal with him, and I was trying to get Maeda back. and he said Maeda. I could maybe hit him up again and see what he thinks,

but now I'm not sure I want to do it, because I thought they were kind of close. Who would you rather have my Ada or Gossman? After Maeda's last start, I pointed out some reasons to suspect regression, the good kind for him. But I just, I feel like the ceiling's lower just because the way the Dodgers handle him.

So I'd rather have Gosman. Scott, Ian Hap, 75% owned. He sat yesterday, but he had been in the starting lineup fairly regularly lately. He came off the bench and had a pinch-in-home run, and now in his last five games, Hap is six for 12 with three home runs, nine walks, nine walks, and four-ks in five games. Is Ian Hapa a must-ad everywhere if he's available? He's 75% owned.

No, he's not a must-ad everywhere. I think that ownership is appropriate. In the leagues where you need a middle-end field spot, you have five outfielder spots to fill. He needs to be owned to those. but it's not like we were going to go all season without Ian Hap getting hot. I don't know that five games is enough to ease my concerns with the ridiculously high strikeout rate,

and clearly it's not like he's an everyday player for the Cubs yet. Maybe if this goes on a little longer, he can enter into that mix. But even before you get to the strikeout issue, If he's only starting four times a week, like that's not a standard head-to-head league that's not going to amount to much. All right, that's Ian Hap. And Scott, any other standouts before we move on?

I'm sure there are, but I'm sure we'll get to them. Okay. Finally, as you craft these notes, you underrated podcast host you. In the Bullpen, Nate Jones, three saves in six days. Nate Jones is 28% owned. and we always thought he was a good pitcher, just not on a very good team. But who would you rather own,

Nate Jones or another guy who got a save yesterday, Tyler Clippard. Clippard. I think it's clearer. Like, I feel like the White Sucks could throw another guy out there tomorrow. I mean, I think Jones has made some headway for sure, but I just don't trust the way they manage that bullpen,

and they're worse than the Blue Jays. How about Corey Canable getting the save and erodes Viscayino. So who do you think gets a bigger percentage of their team saves? Corey Canable, because Hayter pitched the seventh and the eighth through 30 pitches. And then Viscayano with Wink, was it Winkler? Is that his name? Winkler.

Winkler. Winkler. You're right. Henry Winkler pitched the 7th. Dan Winkler. A.J. Minter pitched the 8th and then Erotis Viscayano the 9th. Who gets a bigger percentage of the saves? Canable or Viscayano?

Speaking of actors who are great in supporting comedic roles. Oh. Oh, yeah. I think, were you saying who gets it between? I'm sorry, who are the pitchers again? Canabel and Viscayno. Okay, Knable, I think, does. Okay.

Yeah, are you watching the show Barry, Scott? I'm not. Okay, Henry Winkler's terrific. Go ahead. I still think Vizgayna loses his job. Really? I don't know that it'll be to mentor anymore, but like Dan Winkler's the best reliever in the Braves rotation

and they at least broached the possibility of giving him save chances. It hasn't happened yet. And I like, I mean, this guy, you know, is fine. Maybe he'll keep the job. It's just I'm always wary when the closer isn't the best reliever in the bullpen, which I know is probably technically true for Milwaukee too, but haters, it's just such a specialized role that he has. You know, Heath was saying that even in a points league,

hater could still be valuable. And I was not really feeling it because you need either a save or a win. You need saves or wins in points leagues. You cannot just get by on ratios. But you look at it. I think you might get enough saves or wins. And pitch probably five innings a week. I rank them ahead of this guy, you know.

In a points league? Yes, even in a points league. And that's partly because, you know, I'm suspicious. Fiskeino keeps the job all year. But haters on pace for 192 strikeouts. Dane Perry tweeted over the weekend, I think it was. And it may have changed slightly since then. But I think he was in the top 12 in the NL in strikeouts as a reliever, which is insane.

Yeah. Oh, it's, yeah, he's. They were talking about it on some broadcast. I was watching the pitchers that had fewer strikeouts than Josh Hader and the like starting pitchers, the amount of innings that they had pitched compared to him. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. He is basically, Josh Hader is the seat geek of relief pitchers. He is the one that you should own.

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Two choices for you, fantasy for 20 bucks off your first purchase, or the code is today for 10 bucks off baseball tickets. Always feel free to tweet or email if you need help with the codes. I didn't leave with the D. Gordon News because he might only miss 10 days. he has a broken toe. Going into last night's game, Dee Gordon was ninth in point, sixth in Roto at second base,

with a 304 average, very few extra base hits, one homer, 10 doubles, not bad, and a triple, and 16 steals in 45 games. So Scott, could just be short term for Gordon? Yeah, he actually stole the base with the broken toe, so he doesn't feel like it's a bad break.

Okay. Could this be a bad break? Gene Segura, hurting his shoulder sliding into home plate, I believe, last night. And Mitch Hanager left after being hit by a pitch on the wrist. He's day-to-day. Rough day for the M's. Yeah, Mitch Hanigur, I think, is going to be okay.

I'm more concerned about Segura because I... Jammed shoulder is not an injury you hear about often. And I feel like a lot of times more serious injuries are classified as jams at first. and obviously shoulders, not as very complicated, very complicated joint that can cause a lot of trouble if it's injured. So I'm not, you know, obviously we're not doing anything with Seguori. Yeah, but I'm just concerned. Sure.

The Met sign, Jose Baltista. Gary Sanchez left with calf cramps probably will be out of the lineup today. Ryan Braun, I can't explain to you how bad Gary Sanchez. Ches was catching yesterday. Holy cow, was he bad? I mean, poor Domingo, Domingo Ramon, a run scored from third base on a ball that probably got 15 to 20 feet away from home plate. It was just awful.

Anyway, Ryan Braun could be back tomorrow. Jeremy Helixen is pitching well. He left with a blister. Steven Seuss is on the deal with a pectoral strain. Travis Jancaucoe, Gerard Dyson, you know, clear path to playing time for him. Travis Jankowski was caught stealing. I only mentioned that because you might need steals and Jankowski's 35% own. Aaron Judge says he will not participate in the home run derby.

Well, I will not watch it. Minnesota acquired Chris Carter from the Angels for Cash Considerations. Carter's going to AAA. Matt Boyd did not have a good start, but he was dealing with an oblique spasm, they called it. He left early with the oblique spasm, and Boyd expects to make his next start. Brandon Crawford, Scott White, he homered off Garrett Cole. Did you know I did not that Garrett Cole and Brayette. Brandon Crawford are brothers-in-law.

Garrett Cole is married to Brandon Crawford's sister. I did not know that. Yeah. And Brandon Crawford Homer, off his brother-in-law, Gary Cole. More importantly, Brandon Crawford's batting 453 with a 680 slugging percentage in May, and he is 53% owned.

Yeah, he's flashing some of the mid-range power he showed a couple years ago. The Bavip is really high. But the line drive rate is also really high. I don't, like, if he can sustain the line drive rate, he can probably have a high bad bit, but I don't know, you know, just based on his career, I don't know if he can.

I think he's a fine fill in his shortstop for now. Brandon Crawford? All right, Crawford or Adamas? Like, if you're, if it's for a bench spot, you're targeting upside Adamas. But if you need somebody in your line up right now, got to go Crawford. Let me tell you the last three updates I've given on Greg Byrd, including the today. Monday.

Greg Bird could be back this weekend. Tuesday. Greg Bird will not be back until next week. Wednesday. Greg Bird could be back this weekend. I hope they wait until Tuesday. I would like for him to sit on my D.L.

for an entire week so I can see what I've got there. So I might have to drop him. I hope I don't. That would be in a shallower league. Yeah. Yeah. Toronto called up to Evan Travis. Marcus Stroman started a throwing program,

which doesn't sound like he's very close to me, which stinks. Close to me. And Nate Avaldi could be back next week. And Miguel Sano could be back on Friday. All right, Scott White, you wrote an interesting story about first bass and all these stinking first basemen. Like, they stink right now. I didn't have a chance to read it.

I am sorry. I wanted to. But I will. What would you like to highlight from that? And by the way, we just got an email about Jurexon ProFar. Interesting player. I do want to talk about him. ProFar or Adamus?

Adamus. Scott, first base. A lot of struggling first baseman. What are you thinking right now? I think the one that's the hardest to make a case for is Paul Goldschmidt. But digging deep enough, I was able to find one. And I feel like he's the sort of player where right now you'd obviously be selling him for nickels on the dollar. It's just not worth it.

As much big of an investment as you made in him, you need some reason for optimism. Here's what I found on him. So, yeah, the strikeout rate's way up. People are concerned. It's an age thing. I don't know if you mentioned it on the podcast, but you sent us an email over the weekend about how he...

Do you remember what that note is? Yeah, I mentioned it on the podcast that Buster only had noted how much Paul Goldschmidt was missing fastballs. And that he was in a category with a bunch of older players, I think like Ian Kinsler. but I just Particularly hard fastballs It was 96 miles per hour or not

Right exactly I looked at his performance Pitch for pitch Fastball is You know He's down across the board Pretty much evenly It's not like fastball

Was significantly bigger drop Than anything else So So between the strikeouts And the fastball thing Like They may be signs of age On their own

But the fact that he has a normal line drive rate, a normal hard contact rate, I'm suspicious as an age thing. What I did find for Goldschmidt is that he is seeing more first pitch strikes than ever. By far, pitchers are getting out to an 0-1 count against him. He's also seeing more total pitches than ever.

So, I think it's just the case of him being too patient. Yeah, exactly. Like, he's falling into a hole and having to bat defensively. and he's suffering with it. Like I think it may be as simple as him just learning to be as aggressive as pitchers are being with him, which, you know, if he's in a, the, being the accomplished hitter he is,

I would expect him to follow suit. I think it's also worth reminding people at the end of April, he had an OPS over 900. Like, yeah, we weren't worried about him then. It's just been a disaster in May. So, like,

I don't know. I think, I think maybe, reports of his demise are exaggerated. And I'd be more likely to buy on him than sell, assuming it is low in that his owner isn't looking for face value there. So that's Paul Goldschmidt. Or isn't looking for preseason value.

Are there first baseman that you are genuinely concerned about that you don't think are as certain to turn it around? Ancarnazioen, Reese Hoskins, Cody Bellinger. They were all in this column. and I managed to make a positive argument for each. I think incarnassian would be the most concerning of those and of the ones in the column just because of his age and the fact that

you could see the big jump in strikeouts being more age-related for him than Goldschmidt because he's five years older. But his strikeouts were awful the first two months last year. And then he was a contact hitter, the final four months. I ended up having another awesome season. So I think it's too early to panic on him also. Like if you want to count Ryan Braun as a first baseman, he's eligible there, and I know he's on the DL, but, you know, he won't be, he'll be coming off later this week. I think he's pretty much done.

Braun. You don't think I could get Encarnacion for Kevin Gosman, do you? Maybe. All right, I think I'll propose it. Yeah, I think I'll propose it. Why not? I mean, I would definitely take Goldschmidt for Gosmond. But I think most people will be reluctant to sell Goldschmidt.

I think that there would be a decent amount of Encarnacion owners that would be willing to sell him. And I don't know that they'd be wrong. I mean, maybe he is done. But I think it's probably worth taking a shot on Encarnacion, right? Exactly. I mean, we went through this with him last year as well, like pretty much the exact same timetable. Okay. And, actually, in May, I know a lot of it's driven.

He had a three-homer game on May 2nd, and a lot of it's driven by that. But nonetheless, if you just look at his May stats, they're not that bad. Let's do some Worryometer Wednesday, some grade the trade, talk more about yesterday's games. I did promise everybody that I was going to win on the draft app. And damn it, I was so close. I had a really good team last night. I had Trevor Bauer. I had the fifth pick out of five.

And let me just go ahead and check. I know it came in second. So I had Bauer and I had Mookiee Betts and I had Bryce Harper. And I got two zeros. Mani Machado against James Shields somehow didn't hit three home runs. He didn't even get a hit. And Matt Carpenter against Jason Hamill. James Shields and Hamill somehow had really good starts.

So I lost by 2.33 points to a team that had Gausman, Freeman, Jose Ramirez, Mike Trout, and Reese Hoskins. Very close. Today might be my day. Get on the draft app. Compete against me. Compete against others. Play snake drafts.

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That's what I do. The drafts are really quick. They take just a few minutes. I'm really having a great time. So please join me. Get on the draft app right now and use the promo code FB Today. Play in a real money game for free just by using the code FB today when you make your first deposit. Again, search draft in your app store or go to draft.com and enter the code FB Today.

Worryometer. A couple of first basemen. Let's start with there. Joey Gallo, batting average down to 197. He does have 14 homers, 31R. RBI's, and entering yesterday's games, he was 11th in points and fifth in Roto at first base, 12th in points, seventh in Roto at third base. That means third base has been better than first base.

Worryometer on Joey Gallo. What are we worrying about? If we're worried that he's only going to be who he was last year, then the Worryometer is like a 9. But that's still a pretty valuable player, especially in Roto. All right. Worryometer on Reese Hoskins. He is currently the number 10 first baseman, but their first base has been really weak. He's batting 237 with six home runs.

And I think the nicest thing you say about Hoskins is he's getting on base. A lot of 32 walks and 46 games. Also has 56Ks. Hoskins, 237 batting average and only six home runs does have three steals, though. Worryometer on Reese Hoskins. I'll go like a four here. he has a similar like there's reasons to suspect like with goldsmith the strikeout the jump in strikeouts is related to being too patient but even beyond that like looking at the bab if he has and the fact that it looks fairly sustainable he mainly just needs to hit more home runs to get his batting average back to a tolerable level and he has the at least as of a couple days ago he has the second lowest ground

ball rate among qualifying batters. So he's elevating the ball. He's hitting it hard still. Like, he's going to hit home runs. He was among the minor league leaders in home runs the last two seasons. And once that corrects, then the batting average will correct along with it. So, Reese Hoskins, you think better things to come? I'll drop a two or three.

Three on the word. Yeah. Andrew McCutcheon. I will remind you that last year, he had a 205 batting average after 47. games. He has now played 46 games and he's batting 243 with three home runs. After those 47 games last year, McCutcheon had an 1126 OPS over his next 63 games. Wariometer right now on McCutcheon, who by the way has a 48% hard contact rate. That's a very good.

It is very good. I will go four for him. Woreometer on Carlos Correa, number nine shortstop in both points in Roto, batting 268. eight home runs, 25 walks, 47 strikeouts, and 47 games. Wariometer on Correa. One. Okay.

Warometer on James and Tyone. Let's say... Let's go about a nine for him. Yeah. Oh, man. Did we get destroyed in that trade we made, Scott? Did we get destroyed? Like, I wasn't for the trade, and we haven't...

I wouldn't say we've won the trade. Oh, we have certainly not won it. We gave up Junis and Delano DeShields for Tyone and Brad Ziegler. But DeShields has been pretty awful. In a three outfielder league, I don't know that DeShields is a must start, even though it's a category. Well, it's a 16-team league. We should mention that. Yeah.

Actually, Ziegler, we should give Ziegler. He's gotten us some saves. But Tyone versus Junis. I don't think it's been horrible. But at the same time, like, I'd rather have Junis than Tion at this point. Isn't that amazing? Like, the Pirates. How good would James and Tyone be if he got traded to the Astros?

He'd be incredible. Well, actually, his last two starts, maybe three starts, he's back to featuring the four-seamer over the two-seamer, which is what we got excited about at the beginning of the season. And obviously, the other results haven't followed suit. So I don't know what's up there. Yeah, I don't either. All right, so Tyone is he dropable?

In a shallower league, yeah, he's dropable. Okay. Worryometer for Jonathan's scope. I'll go about a five here. I still have them as a top 10 second baseman, but it's kind of like what we've seen with Rognetto Dor the last couple years. Like hitters who don't walk at all,

if there's any slippage in their pure hitting ability, it can be disastrous. And that's what we've seen from scope earlier this season. But obviously he missed a lot of time with injury, and he still has plenty of time to rebound. And finally, worryometer for Hanley Ramirez, another struggling first baseman, who still is fifth in Roto, but ninth of points. I mean, he's still top 10 for his basement.

Last 30 games, Hanley is batting 230 with three home runs. Yeah, he's been really bad. I mean, for the year, this is a first baseman who has six home runs. He's batting 266. That's almost as bad as Reese Hoskins. Yeah, he's partly up that high in the first base rankings because so many first basemen have been miserable. Yeah.

I still feel like his overall season numbers are a pretty good scenario. Like if you were, I don't know that they're necessarily the best case scenario, but they're better than I expected from Hanley coming into the year. So Worryometer, given my low starting expectations, I'll put it like seven because I think he'll, you know, this is, this is still, he's still exceeded my expectations, like I said. Yeah, okay, so Hanley's been really good against lefties this year. They've faced two left-handed starters in their last. 15 games. Maybe that's something to keep an eye on, but I do think that maybe the owner who did not

who did not sell Hanley Ramirez missed a big chance. I wonder if he's going to be dropped at some point, you know? I mean, especially if he's doing most of his damage against lefties, they have Mitch Morland there, a left-handed hitter. He's still batting third, though. Like, stop batting him third. I don't understand that. But I, you know. Well, that's a good thing for me. They will if he keeps struggling like this. Yeah. I mean, I think there's something too, and, you know, people are so...

We nitpick starting lineups these days in a way that I don't think... Like, I think the uproar over them, it doesn't even come close to the significance of them. But, like, he may be batting Hanley Ramirez third because he thinks that's how to get the most out of Hanley Ramirez. and forget like that above what the optimized order of hitters can do for you, if you're optimizing individual player performance, that has to take priority, right?

Yeah. Yeah. All right, Scottie. Let's grade some trades. But here's the problem. My iPad broke, and I cannot play any freaking music, and I am really upset about this. Very upset.

So, you know, teach me how to doggie. Teach me how to doggie. This is from Ned. Grade the Trade, Part one. Dear Kobe Magic, Shaq, and Karim give Trey Turner and Jose Martinez For Bryce Harper and Eduardo Escobar Trey Turner and Jose Martinez for Harper and Escobar

Pretty close to even Bryce Harper is the best player in the deal So I will give it a C plus From Nick in Portland This is a Keeper League, keep four players per year 12 teams 10 by 10 All right, it's a lot. It's kind of complicated. Give up Miles Michaelis,

Sean Minia, and a sixth round pick. So like a 10th round pick. Sure. Because there's four keepers. U. Darvish and a fourth round pick, which is like an eight-round pick. Yeah, there you go.

So Miles, Michaelis, Sean Minia, and a sixth round pick for U. Darvish and a fourth round pick. And moving up two rounds in the middle of the draft. Yeah, so basically it's Michaelis and Mania for Darvish.

moving up two rounds. Yeah. Again, I'll take the side with the best player, which is Darvish. Okay. So what are you? C-plus? Yeah, C-plus again. It's pretty close to even.

Brian from New Hampshire, grade the trade. Billy Longfellow and Nikki. Come on, Scott. SNL cast member. Oh, yeah. Those are Adam Sandler characters, right? Ten team head-to-head, O.B.P. League. Give up Charlie Morton.

Get Lorenzo Kane. especially since it's an O.B.P. League? Well, I don't know if that matters that much. But, yeah, I'd rather have more, and I'll give it a C-minus. Mitch Ingowanus. I don't know how to pronounce that. Grade the trade.

Give up Carlos Santana and Tyson Ross in an OBP Keeper League, by the way. Carlos Santana and Tyson Ross get Anthony Rizzo and John Gray. Yes. Awesome. I like how you react before I even have to. A minus, Santana and Ross for Rizzo and Gray. In a keeper league, now you get to keep Anthony Rizzo. I mean, he's not young.

I'll give it a B. It's an A-Mise. First of all, Rizzo is like much better than Santana. And Gray or Tyson Ross, I think, might rather I'm gray. I don't know that he's, like, the gap between Rizzo and Santana closes since it's an OBP. league. Why? Rizzo is right O BPA.

I agree. I agree it's an upgrade at both spots of both first base and starting pitcher for both a short and long term. Is Rizzo not?

Okay, I'll make it a B plus. Is Rizzo not walking this year, by the way? Or am I crazy? No, he walked. He's walking. He has 12 walks this year. But I'm just saying

like Santana and a standard batting average league is a big negative in that one category. And in an OPP league, he's, you know, a positive.

Okay. 12 walks and 36 games. So the walk rate is down for Rizzo. That's interesting. Streaking hitters. Let's talk about some hitters who are swinging a hot bat. Yasil Pug. Seven for 22 with five home runs in his last eight games.

Only five home runs of the year. Jerks and ProFar is 23% owned. He's got a lot of eligibility. I'll check on the eligibility. And Harardo Parra, in the month of May, Parra is batting 367 with two homers and three steals. Parra is the 37th best outfielder in points in May, 30th and Roto. Let me check on the Profar eligibility, but talk about Pueig, Profar, and Para. Ooh, I didn't realize the alliteration there.

The triple P's. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, Pweed could be pretty good. We saw it last year. I haven't, even with the horrible start and B. Elston, I didn't move him way down my rankings. He's still top 50 outfielder for me. I'm just not sure ProFar is quite powerful enough to measure up in today's game. Yeah, he's been better against lefties.

He did Homer off a rightie yesterday, but three homers, three steals for ProFar. He's been pretty good. I have previous 10 games before yesterday. He was batting 256 with six doubles. But right. He should probably have a higher batting average than he has, but ultimately I just don't think I just don't think there's much room for him

to move up in mixed league rankings Okay pro far 23% own is eligible at shortstop second base and outfield I dropped Matt Adams for him yesterday But that had a lot to do with Matt Adams Yeah he's He's a pretty easy choice to drop again I'm already looking forward to next

you know, May or June when he's like hitting 12 home runs for the twins and we're like, oh, Matt Adams is awesome. And then he doesn't have a job a month later. All right. More from yesterday. Let's skip around here so we can grade more trades and regulate. Well, all right, tell me how much you want to own the following pitchers. Tyler Chat, this is shorted by ownership percentage.

Tyler Chatwood is 76% owned. almost not at all Vince Velasquez Yeah he's moving up He did throw it like My knock on the knock on Vince Velazquez It was leans too much on the fastball Not enough of secondary arsenal

He hardly threw his fastball Yesterday I think it was only like 30% of the time So clearly Piling up a season high swinging strike total Against the Braves He has some other stuff to work with And frankly, the K-per-9 is just so high that I'm being a little too critical of him. Velasquez has 64 strikeouts in 51 and 2-thirds.

I am absolutely picking him up if I see him. I don't think Velascus is available anywhere. And Scott, I think you look at the Phillies. They're like the Astros of the NL. I mean, okay, they don't have four amazing pitchers. But everybody in their rotation is overachieving, right? I mean, definitely, not overachieving, but having a really good year for what we expected. Aranola, maybe Velazquez, I don't know, not sure.

Pfebeta. Povetta, thank you. Geez, Pivotta. Yeah. Eflin, I'm not saying he's great, but he's doing better than we thought. And who else am I missing here? Oh, Areeta. Arieta, yeah.

He's having a good year, but not in a way I trust. So, yes, they are getting close to a best case scenario from all of their arms. Areetta, I think in the long run, is going to be an exception to that. Would you rather have Velasquez and Arieta? No, I wouldn't. Okay, Jeremy Hellickson. How much do you want to own him? Not much.

I think what his success is largely hinging on the nationals not letting him face a lineup third time through. Right. And maybe that's a sustainable plan, but obviously it's going to limit his win, potential going to limit his innings. He has only once in his last – well, I'd have to pull it up and see. But there's a lot of starts where he's not even getting to 80 pitches. Okay, Jeremy Hulkson. How much do you want to own Trevor Cahill? Trevor Cahill?

Like I said, he's pretty fringy. He's dropable. Like, I'd rather own him than Chatwood and Helixen. How much do you want to own Jake Ferreya? Well, now he has a strained oblique and is going on the D.L. He was already pretty dropable before. Oh, I didn't even realize that. Than Cahill.

Okay. I didn't realize Faria got hurt. Well, I'll just blame it on that then. All right. I know you want to own Caleb Smith. How much do you want to own Yolisha Seen? He's fun. deeper league in a lonely option, but it seems like this could go arrive for him still.

It's not like he's suddenly missing a lot of bats and getting a lot of ground balls. All right, Yolishasin. How about Zach Wheeler? Kind of interesting. The strikeouts have definitely been up recently. He also seems pretty vulnerable to the disaster starts. So I'll, like he's still behind Cahill for me. That's Zach Wheeler.

How about Domingo or Maman? How much do you want to own him? Nope. Still some interesting signs, but not really. Yeah, there are interesting signs. Apparently he has a very high spin rate on his fastball. He does have good stuff. He gets strikeouts, but two bad starts in a row. Matt Cook, 34% own.

How much do you want to own Matt Cook? In all only. Matt Harvey. I've got to say NL only for him, too. I think he's having a fortuitous stretch here with the Reds, not missing a lot of bats. Mike Leak. Uh, pretty low end behind like Chasine even.

Brandon McCarthy. He's not bad, Scott. He's not bad. He's not bad, but he's not bad in like a Ulyshasine sort of way. Two dreadful starts. Other than that, he's been pretty good. But yeah, he doesn't go deep. He's pitched six innings only twice and no more than six innings for McCarthy in any start.

Lance Lynn had a good start. He did, but he had a start like this three turns ago. One walk in this start, and there was zero walks in that. other good six-inning outing. And then obviously two disasters in between. So I'm not fully trusting it yet. But, you know, I think there's a turnaround coming. Sure, with Lance Lynn.

And those two good starts were at the White Sox and against Detroit, without Miguel Cabrera, without Jamry, Candelario, so it's been probably matchups. How about Eric Lauer? No. How about Jason Hamel? No.

How about James Shields? More than those last two. I mean, because he is doing some. different things here recently and is on a nice quality start stretch, but I still don't think there's a lot of upside here. All right, yeah, James Shields, O.N.1, 327 ERA in his last five starts, 26 strikeouts and 33 innings. All right, Scott, it's time to, I miss Nate Dogg and Warren G. I want to play the music so badly.

Let's regulate. That's pretty good. Thanks. That's also a Michael McDonald's song originally. Keep going. That's that song. All right. Regulating.

Ben from D.C., dear Corey, Travis, and Alex. Corey, Travis, and Alex are, I don't know. Do you know? Dodgers? Is there a Travis? Corey Seeger, Alex, I don't know. I'm the commissioner of a 10-team points Dynasty League. Yesterday, a manager tried to claim Victor Mesa, a Cuban defector, but instead he claimed the wrong Victor Mesa as the Cuban was added to the player pool late in the day yesterday.

The owner messaged me last night and said that he didn't realize he was picking up the wrong player, and he asked if I would not overbid him on Fab today, so he has a chance to acquire the correct Victor Mesa. As his commissioner, friend, and league mate, should I make fun of him for not researching the right player he was bidding on? and overbid him today, or should I be merciful and not put a bid in on Victor Mesa, on the right Victor Mesa, so he can right is wrong. It's easy to look at a player card and see that Victor Mesa is a 24-year-old Dominican,

and the correct Victor Mesa, who is Victor Vesa, by the way, is a 21-year-old Cuban. P.S. Harper Scherzer should be an NBA jam top team. That would be a good one. Yeah, that might be the answer. Victor. Victor. That sounds like you're like relaying a military code.

No, it's airplane. What's your vector? Oh, that is? Yeah, what's your vector? What do you do here? If you're the commissioner, and this guy picked up the wrong Victor Mesa, do you go out and just say, hey, screw you, buddy. I'm going to get the right guy.

It'll reverebid you. Well, if everybody was competing on equal terms and it was just an honest mistake, I would grant him his request. What makes it sticky is there may be people in this league who are waiting around for the right Victor Mesa to show up in the player pool. And, you know, just because, like, that's what I don't know. Yeah. So I feel like you need to run the process.

You need to run the FAB process again. All right, from Zach, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. We play in a deep keeper league where you keep 10 players based on the round selected. It's a 30-round draft 30-man roster. The commissioner replaced one of the teams last year with a friend from his job who clearly knew nothing about baseball or fantasy. The commissioner traded Daniel Murphy, who is a 12th round pick and a sixth round pick next year for mooky bets and a third round pick. So you traded Daniel Murphy for mooky bets and he moved up like nine rounds. The new owner, yeah, this is with the owner that the commissioner brought in, a friend of his report who knows nothing.

The new owner also proceeded to drop Nick Senzel. Bear in mind that all top prospects, probably most of the top 20 or 30 prospects, are definitely owned. I was lucky enough to pick up Senzel, but he also dropped Glaber Torres, who was picked up by another order. Basically, we have an incompetent owner here. Needless to say, the league was furious about the bets trade, and in our group chat was letting their feelings out. As a result, the new owner quit the league and was replaced. He quit because he said he didn't like the fact that everyone was criticizing his move. I said this is similar to letting your wife or girlfriend join the league,

making a trade with them and then kicking them out of the league. I felt that all the moves should have been reversed before this person was allowed to join the league. So basically going back to what happened before this guy joined. The commissioner rule that the transactions will stand because he needs mooky bets. Scott, let's regulate. Sounds like there's an uprising in the making here. What makes it hard is it's the commissioner. And so, I mean, how do you, you know, other than overthrowing the commissioner?

It's a pretty big conflict. Mookie Betz is arguably the best player in fantasy. How about dropping Glaber Torres? He just gave Glaver Torres away. Yeah, I don't think you can fix that. Obviously, it was a bad move. But it's not like it benefited this one owner who invited him to the league. So I think everyone just has to live with that.

But the Betts trade needs to be undone because it's ridiculous. Nice, Scott. Regulate. It's reasonable to wonder. if it was made in good faith. And if the commissioner is unwilling to back it up, I say you leave the commissioner to play by himself next year and start your own league. Wow. Scott White is taking the gloves off. I will say this, though.

If you back out the bets trade, I kind of feel like you have to go whole kit and caboodle and back out the ad drops, too. It's hard to know exactly all the ramifications of that. I don't know how long ago Glabertoras was picked up by owner X and Nick Senzel by owner Y and what other moves they might have made in the meantime and who they dropped and what happened to those players. Like that gets very sticky. I don't know. I agree with you that the bet straight should be reversed. I don't know how you do one and out the other.

All right, that says, yeah. Because it didn't benefit the owner that you're thinking. Oh, it was brought in the... Right. Yeah. All right. This is finally from... Oh, I don't have a name here. I'm sorry.

But he says, Dear Warren, Nate and Calvin, yeah, we're regulators. Do, do, do, do, do, do. During the off season, a member of our league stated that he didn't want to play anymore. And we could replace him in our 10-team Dynasty League. The commissioner said he liked the guy and was going to try to talk him into staying, which he eventually did. Fast forward to last week where the commission and the before-mentioned uninterested owner make a trade. The commission gave up Scooter Jeanette and Matt Davidson, who we picked up on waivers two days prior,

for Carlos Santana and Marcel Ozuna. Jeanette and Davidson for Santana and Ozuna. The league collectively crapped its pants at the lopsided trade. It was proposed to be ad league voting for vetoes, and the commission said, we'll talk about adding it for next year during the offseason. He, of course, then upheld the trade. I think there is not only hijinks here,

but also a copious amount of tomfoolery. it is clear to me, I am the smartest guy in the league, that the commission only kept this dude around to make these kind of trades with. How should I flip out on these fools? I don't know, Scott. So this one's not that bad. Yeah, this one's not that bad. This one doesn't strike me as obvious idiocy or suspicious acting in bad faith,

unless there's a history of it between these two. And I know the commissioner wanted the guy to stay, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. uh like depending on the format and he doesn't say other than ten team dynasty like if it's a categories league i'm not sure janet isn't more valuable than santana yeah but he's not but he's not alzuna is in theory the best player in this deal but he's been so awful that i think it's reasonable for somebody to sell low on him now like you have to like you have to let people sell low or else there's no point in that even being a segment in fantasy baseball discussion i'm sorry guys i don't think we can really regulate here. Although, I don't know that if you want to institute voting now,

you don't necessarily have to wait until next year. But, you know, I don't know that there's any Tom Foolery going on here. Like, I don't, I think freighting should just be free. And if you can't trust people to do it right, then you don't need to play with those people. But, yeah, I don't know. Scott, sorry. I don't mind that change mid-season. Let's grade some more trades to finish the show.

From Kevin and Texas, Justin Turner and Luke Weaver for Brian Dozier and Alex Reyes. Turner and Weaver for Dozer and Reyes. Oh, nice. Yeah, that is an upgrade, I think, on both ends. I will give it a B. Alex from Detroit, 12-team Categories League. Give Matt Olson and Madison Bumgarner. Get Alex Reyes and Reese Hoskins.

Olson and Bummy for Reyes and Hoskins. It's a C. Okay. You'd rather have Bum Garner than Reyes, I assume. Mm-hmm. Yep. From Ben and A.L. Only Lee, give up Nomar Mizarra, Lucas Duda, and Andrew Miller. Nomar Mizarra, Lucas Duder, and Andrew Miller.

Get Justin Upton, Cirrus Davis, and Tyler Skaggs. Mizarra, Duda, and Miller, for Justin Upton, Seeris Davis, and Skag. Well, somebody who doesn't buy the Mazar a breakout, I think Justin Upton is far in away the best player in this deal. And Tyler Skaggs might be the second best player, so I'm going to give this a B-plus. An A-minus. Yep, A-minus. And finally, Matthew Walker traded Cesar Hernandez, Kyle Seeger, and Sean Mania.

Hernandez, Segar, and Mania for Jose Altoove. And that's an A. Yeah, solid A. That is an A plus. Beautiful. All right. Thank you, Scott. And thank you all for listening.

I'm sorry about the lack of music. Ruined the show. Terrible show. We'll do better tomorrow. Bye.